By Kalin Krohe, Panhandle Post
The Pillars for the Park dedication ceremony will be held this Saturday, June 26 in Alliance's Central Park.
"I just can not hardly believe that it is here already," Pillars for the Park Chairman Tami Cox Swearingen said. "All that time of meetings and all the people raising money...I mean everyone has been so fabulous. The folks at K.L Wood and Croell...and Hubbell, they have all done such a fabulous job. It's looking beautiful."
The celebration will start at 2 p.m.
"We have a fun day planned and of course Crossbell will be there to play," Swearingen said. "It's just going to be a fun day in the park and I hope everybody comes out and enjoys what they've done for the community. I've talked to Larry McCracken and they will be having the American Legion Color Guard to present the flags. Matthew and Jack Moomey will be playing trumpet to the National Anthem. Mr. Mike Dafney, our illustrious Mayor, will be there to speak. I will be there of course to speak because that seems to be what I do best. Following that the 7th Street Dance Studio kids will be there. All of my board [Pillars for the Park] will possibly be there. Of course we lost Wayne McLaughlin this year and we're very sad about that. We're just all so excited, it's just amazing."
The original construction of the pillars was in the 1930's. Panhandle Post asked Swearingen how she feels to revitalize a feature of the park.
"I'm really using the word amazing a lot lately, but it is an amazing feeling," Swearingen said. "I've always kind of been a history nut anyway. When I moved back to town, I wanted to do something meaningful and something special. Those poor gardens have lived a long, long life and it looked so bad...so to be able to be a part of bringing that back and see the excitement in people. I read on the Facebook page [Pillars for the Park] that I have and people say that looking at the pictures now, they have tears and they remember when they were there. It's kind of giving a gift back to the kids so they have all those same memories we do. It's just an awesome feeling."
Swearingen said the remaining original pillars were torn down in 2008.
"They were there for an awfully long time," Swearingen said. "They were replaced once. The kids from the Job Corp...they wanted them to learn how to do that sort of thing, so I guess they replaced some of them. I was not here, I had moved when that happened. But you know time does everything...we're hoping that these stand the test of time a little bit better. They are made of fiberglass. They are made out of better construction materials from what the old things were. They should be there for a long, long time."
Swearingen said she can't believe how fast the construction process went.
"They started last fall and it was pretty darn cold," Swearingen said. "They were working and unless it had snow down there, they were working when they could. They got started back up with it this spring. Of course the rains kind of messed with it a little bit. I drive by there and there's a guy up to his neck in dirt and everything...and it's raining on him like crazy, but he's still down there shoveling. They have done such a good job. The quality of work is just fabulous. The engineers, Baker and Associates, followed their puzzle or game plan and they have done a great job of it. Man, these guys aren't slacking. You go by there and there might be 15 guys and not one of them is standing around. We had hoped that it would come in and be 100 percent done for the dedication; it's not going to be. It's going to be very, very close. It will be enough that we'll have our dedication. They will finish after we're done, but they're almost done anyway. I've been thrilled, I think they have done this in great time. I think it's really more than we could hope for."
Swearingen said the pillars will bring back old memories and create new ones for the community of Alliance.
"Almost all of my class when we graduated [Alliance High School] we had our pictures taken down there," Swearingen said. "I know already that there's people interested in getting married there. The Knight Museum is where they would call if they want to reserve the sunken gardens. But they got people already reserving them for weddings and what a beautiful place. I think it will increase our tourism. We have so many wonderful things here anyway. It's just a give back project from the heart from a whole lot of people."
Swearingen said the total cost of the pillars project was around $544,000.
"I know some people seem to think that high and I don't know why they think so," Swearingen said. "You got engineers that are paid...you know there's so many things that have to be paid for all along the way and they don't realize that. It is a lot of money. It cost us $7,000 to hire this Mr. Alvacanta and he will be here for the dedication also. He's the one that wrote one of the big grants and he worked with Shana Brown [Cultural and Leisure Director] on it with Jeff Sprock [Former Alliance City Manager]. We could not have done this without Jeff Sprock. He was so behind us and such a good guy. Anyway we paid him [Alvacanta] to raise some of the money through grant and that grant was a huge one. It ended up covering all the rest of it and of course our anonymous donors. A lot gave from out of town. We had every state, but two in the United States that didn't have somebody from Alliance donate money from their state. The rest of it was all...everything from lemonade stands to dances, raffles, etc. Everybody that goes down there on Saturday and is there for that ceremony and everything...it's a little bit of us, it's a little bit of Alliance."
